Excellent article! I am not a fan of flashlights on handguns; never have been and never will be. The technique shown is the same technique that I have been using for many years. I like my switches mounted on the side of the flashlight rather than on the rear. Besides, the flashlight that I carried as a LEO also made a good impact weapon and I did not have to worry about buggering up my duty weapon when taking out some perp's kneecap. Straight baton and flashlight defensive tactic techniques were very similar in those days.

The sympathetic nerve reaction that you spoke about is founded in fact; therefore, it is best to keep the finger off of the trigger until you are ready to shoot (of course, we knew that already, didn't we?).

With revolvers, and with their heavy trigger, sympathetic nerve reaction wasn't that much of a problem. With some semi-automatic pistols made today, I could see where there could be a problem - especially under stress.

Anyway, kudos on the article and taking us down memory lane with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. And, was there someone else in that picture? All I saw was....

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The fact that the GOVERNMENT would even consider removing the natural right to bear arms is the very reason why the 2nd Amendment was written.

Michael was chubby, and he liked to talk. A mutual friend called him "The Round Mound of Sound."But  funny thing  I found everything that Michael said was interesting. Besides, I like to talk too.

Michael was a former Marine, "merely" a drummer in the band, "merely" a corporal, but he made Expert Rifleman, and he had seen a little combat too.He was very well read, in history, politics, and military science. And he had very interesting friends, who became my friends too. They including a very talented gunsmith, a Marine Corps sniper (who served with distinction in Vietnam), the pistol instructor for the Bakersfield (CA) Police Department, and a Bakersfield Fire Captain who could devise hellishly difficult shooting problems which always taught you something as you coped with them.

Michael was the best natural teacher I've ever met. He could instinctively alter his teaching mode and presentation to match the capacity and intelligence of each of his various students. Anybody who hired him for private lessons, or took a class from him at Gunsite, came away a better shooter, a better tactician, and much better suited for self defense.

Michael gave me quite an education!I gave him leather work, in exchange for private lessons, until he didn't need any more leather work. By then, we were close family friends, so he just mentored me for the next 20 years. We even wrote a book together, although he died before we could publish it.

...Any thoughts about publishing that book? I think that he would like that.

The material in it, all about survival guns and equipment, is now woefully out-of-date.

The zeroing article, and the one about point-blank zeroes, were both excerpted from the manuscript.Mike and I both wrote about equipment, he wrote about shooting technique and tactics, and I wrote about zeroing, statistics, and the like. While I was the sole author of the point-blank-zero chapter, it was Mike who had taught me about the concept.